The family of an El Paso Uber driver, fatally shot by a passenger who feared abduction into Mexico, spoke out after the murder charge was formally dropped.
El Paso District Attorney James Montoya was joined by 10 members of the family of Daniel Piedra Garcia on Thursday, May 29, as Montoya said his office submitted a motion to dismiss the case against Phoebe Copas, who died in March while awaiting trial.
Garcia was fatally shot while driving Copas, who was visiting from Kentucky, from a West Side hotel to Speaking Rock Entertainment Center in the Lower Valley via U.S. 54 on the afternoon of June 16, 2023.
“My uncle was the victim. He wasn’t a kidnapper. He wasn’t a criminal. He was just a hardworking man,” his niece, Didi Lopez, said at a news conference at the El Paso District Attorney’s Office.
Copas, who claimed self-defense, died in March while awaiting trial, which was scheduled to start on April 28. She had medical issues and had collapsed during a court hearing in December.
Montoya said that Copas was found unresponsive in a hotel room in El Paso and an autopsy by the county medical examiner determined she died of natural causes from an obstruction in her intestine.
Montoya said he felt confident that Copas would have been convicted if the case had gone to trial and prosecutors would have proven that her use of force was unreasonable and unnecessary. Neither Montoya nor the family took questions after giving their statements.
Piedra, 52, had only been working as a driver for the Uber ride-hailing company for about two weeks to help provide income for his family while trying to get back on his feet following an injury, Lopez said.
Members of Piedra’s family thanked the El Paso community for its support but were upset by the way Piedra had been portrayed by Copas’ legal defense.
“It’s not fair that despite all this, the (defense) lawyers want to disparage the memory of my brother-in-law when he always tried to do right. He was a good person,” Piedra’s sister-in-law Patricia Piedra said in Spanish while seated next to Lopez.
The route Piedra was taking was the path shown by Uber to be the quickest to Speaking Rock. He did not have a criminal record and he wasn’t on drugs, but had been medicated at the hospital after he was shot, his family said, countering what they said were false claims.
Lopez described her uncle as really funny, loving and hardworking. She added that the end of the legal process doesn’t bring closure to the family.
“My uncle is not here anymore. He’s not coming back. This has left a huge hole in our lives,” Lopez said, adding that the legal process was exhausting and took a huge emotional toll on the family.
“I don’t think it’s fair the way that he was taken,” she said. “No one deserves that. He didn’t deserve that. It’s not fair that he’s no longer here because someone just made a rash decision.
“I miss him so much,” Lopez said with tears running down her cheeks. “He’s not here to make us laugh anymore. He’s not here to have his weekly coffee with my grandma. I don’t hear him talking to my mom anymore. They would talk every day. They were like best friends. It hurts me seeing how much this has impacted them.”
Daniel Borunda may be reached at dborunda@elpasotimes.com and @BorundaDaniel on X.
This article originally appeared on El Paso Times: ‘A hardworking man’: Family speaks after murder charge dropped in Uber driver’s death
Reporting by Daniel Borunda, El Paso Times / El Paso Times
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
